Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite

The liturgy and Rite of the Church of Milan, which derives its name from St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (374-397).

History

There is no direct evidence that the Rite was in any way the composition of St. Ambrose, but his name has been associated with it since the eighth century at least, and it is not improbable that in his day it took not indeed a final form, for it has been subject to various revisions from time to time, but a form which included the principal characteristics which distinguish it from other rites. It is to be remembered that St. Ambrose succeeded the Arian Auxentius, during whose long episcopate, 355 to 374, it would seem probable that Arian modifications may have been introduced, though on that point we have no information, into a rite the period of whose original composition is unknown. If, as would necessarily happen, St. Ambrose expunged these hypothetical unorthodoxies and issued corrected service books, this alone would suffice to attach his name to it. We know from St. Augustine (Confess., IX, vii) and Paulinus the Deacon (Vita S. Ambros., § 13) that St. Ambrose introduced innovations, not indeed into the Mass, but into what would seem to be the Divine Office, at the time of his contest with the Empress Justina for the Portian Basilica (on the site of San Vittore al Corpo), which she claimed for the Arians. St. Ambrose filled the church with Catholics and kept them there night and day until the peril was past. And he arranged Psalms and hymns for them to sing, as St. Augustine says, "secundum morem orientalium partium ne populus mæroris tædio contabesceret" (after the manner of the Orientals, lest the people should languish in cheerless monotony); and of this Paulinus the Deacon says: "Hoc in tempore primum antiphonæ, hymni. et vigiliæ in ecclesiâ Mediolanensi celebrari cœperunt, Cujus celebritatis devotio usque in hodiernum diem non solum in eadem ecclesia verum per omnes pæne Occidentis provincias manet" (Now for the first time antiphons, hymns, and vigils began to be part of the observance of the Church in Milan, which devout observance lasts to our day not only in that church but in nearly every province of the West). From the time of St. Ambrose, whose hymns are well-known and whose liturgical allusions may certainly be explained as referring to a rite which possessed the characteristics of that which is called by his name, until the period of Charlemagne, there is something of a gap in the history of the Milanese Rite, though it is said (Cantù, Milano e il suo territorio, I, 116) that St. Simplician, the successor of St. Ambrose, added much to the Rite and that St. Lazarus (438-451) introduced the three days of the Litanies. The Church of Milan underwent various vicissitudes and for a period of some eighty years (570-649), during the Lombard conquests, the see was actually removed to Genoa. Mgr. Duchesne and M. Lejay suggest that it was during that time that the greatest Roman influence was felt, and they would trace to it the adoption of the Roman Canon of the Mass. In the eighth-century manuscript evidence begins. In a short treatise on the various cursus or forms of the Divine Office used in the Church, entitled "Ratio de Cursus qui fuerunt ex auctores" (sic in Cott. Manuscripts, Nero A. II, in the British Museum), written about the middle of the eighth century, probably by an Irishmonk in France, is found what is perhaps the earliest attribution of the Milan use to St. Ambrose, though it quotes the authority of St. Augustine, probably alluding to the passage already mentioned: "Est et alius cursus quem refert beatus augustinus episcopus quod beatus ambrosius propter hereticorum ordinem dissimilem composuit quem in italia antea de cantabatur" (There is yet another Cursus which the blessed Bishop Augustine says that the blessed Ambrose composed because of the existence of a different use of the heretics, which previously used to be sung in Italy). The passage is quite ungrammatical but so is the whole treatise, though its meaning is not obscure. According to a not very convincing narrative of Landulphus Senior, the eleventh-century chronicler of Milan, Charlemagne attempted to abolish the Ambrosian Rite, as he or his father, Pepin the Short, had abolished the Gallican Rite in France, in favour of a Gallicanized Roman Rite. He sent to Milan and caused to be destroyed or sent beyond the mountain, quasi in exilium (as if into exile), all the Ambrosian books which could be found. Eugenius the Bishop, transmontanus episcopus (transmontane bishop), as Landulf calls him, begged him to reconsider his decision. After the manner of the time, an ordeal, which reminds one of the celebrated trials by fire and by battle in the case of Alfonso VI and the Mozarabic Rite, was determined on. Two books, Ambrosian and Roman, were laid closed upon the altar of St. Peter's Church in Rome and left for three days, and the one which was found open was to win. They were both found open, and it was resolved that as God had shown that one was as acceptable as the other, the Ambrosian Rite should continue. But the destruction had been so far effective that no Ambrosian books could be found, save one missal which a faithful priest had hidden for six weeks in a cave in the mountains. Therefore the Manuale was written out from memory by certain priests and clerks (Landulph, Chron., 10-13). Walafridus Strabo, who died Abbot of Reichenau in 849, and must therefore have been nearly, if not quite, contemporary with this incident, says nothing about it, but (De Rebus Ecclesiasticis, xxii), speaking of various forms of the Mass, says: "Ambrosius quoque Mediolanensis episcopus tam missæ quam cæterorum dispositionem officiorum suæ ecclesiæ et aliis Liguribus ordinavit, quæ et usque hodie in Mediolanensi tenentur ecclesia" (Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, also arranged a ceremonial for the Mass and other offices for his own church and for other parts of Liguria, which is still observed in the Milanese Church).

In the eleventh century Pope Nicholas II, who in 1060 had tried to abolish the Mozarabic Rite, wished also to attack the Ambrosian, and was aided by St. Peter Damian, but he was unsuccessful, and Alexander II, his successor, himself a Milanese, reversed his policy in this respect. St. Gregory VII made another attempt, and Le Brun (Explication de la Messe, III, art. I, § 8) conjectures that Landulf's miraculous narrative was written with a purpose about that time.

Having weathered these storms, the Ambrosian Rite had peace for some three centuries and a half. In the first half of the fifteenth century Cardinal Branda da Castiglione, who died in 1448, was legate in Milan. As part of his plan for reconciling Philip Mary Visconti, Duke of Milan, and the Holy See, he endeavoured to substitute the Roman Rite for the Ambrosian. The result was a serious riot, and the Cardinal's legateship came to an abrupt end.

After that the Ambrosian Rite was safe until the Council of Trent. The Rule of that Council, that local uses which could show a prescription of two centuries might be retained, saved Milan, not without a struggle, from the toss of its Rite, and St. Charles Borromeo, though he made some alterations in a Roman direction, was most careful not to destroy its characteristics. A small attempt made against it by a Governor of Milan who had obtained a permission from the Pope to have the Roman Mass said in any church which he might happen to attend, was defeated by St. Charles, and his own revisions were intended to do little more than was inevitable in a living rite.

Since his time the temper of the Milan Church has been most conservative, and the only alterations in subsequent editions seem to have been slight improvements in the wording of rubrics and in the arrangement of the books. The district in which the Ambrosian Rite is used is nominally the old archiepiscopal province of Milan before the changes of 1515 and 1819, but in actual fact it is not exclusively used even in the city of Milan itself. In parts of the Swiss Canton of Ticino it is used; in other parts the Roman Rite is so much preferred that it is said that when Cardinal Gaisruck tried to force the Ambrosian upon them the inhabitants declared that they would be either Roman or Lutheran.

There are traces also of the use of the Ambrosian Rite beyond the limits of the Province of Milan. In 1132-34, two Augustinian canons of Ratisbon, Paul, said by Bäumer to be Paul of Bernried, and Gebehard, held a correspondence (printed by Mabillon in his "Musæum Italicum" from the originals in the Cathedral Library at Milan) with Anselm, Archbishop of Milan, and Martin, treasurer of St. Ambrose, with a view of obtaining copies of the books of the Ambrosian Rite, so that they might introduce it into their church. In the fourteenth century the Emperor Charles IV introduced the Rite into the Church of St. Ambrose at Prague. Traces of it, mixed with the Roman, are said by Hoeyinck (Geschichte der kirchl. Liturgie des Bisthums Augsburg) to have remained in the diocese of Augsburg down to its last breviary of 1584, and according to Catena (Cantù, Milano e il suo territorio, 118) the use of Capua in the time of St. Charles Borromeo had some resemblance to that of Milan.

Origin

The origin of the Ambrosian Rite is still under discussion, and at least two conflicting theories are held by Leading liturgiologists. The decision is not made any the easier by the absence of any direct evidence as to the nature of the Rite before about the ninth century. There are, it is true, allusions to various services of the MilaneseChurch in the writings of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, and in the anonymous treatise "De Sacramentis", which used to be attributed to the latter, but is now definitely decided not to be his; but these allusions are naturally enough insufficient for more than vague conjecture, and have been used with perhaps equal justification in support of either side of the controversy. Even if the rather improbable story of Landulf is not to be believed, the existing manuscripts, which only take us back at the earliest to the period of Charlemagne, leave the question of his influence open. This much we may confidently affirm, that though both the Missal and the Breviary have been subjected from time to time to various modifications, often, as might be expected, in a Roman direction, the changes are singularly few and unimportant, and the Ambrosian Rite of today is substantially the same as that represented in the early Manuscripts. Indeed, since some of these documents come from places in the Alpine valleys, such as Biasca, Lodrino, Venegono. and elsewhere, while the modern rite is that of the metropolitancathedral and the churches of the city of Milan, some proportion of the differences may well turn out to be local rather than chronological developments. The arguments of the two principal theories are necessarily derived in a great measure from the internal evidence of the books themselves, and at present the end of the controversy is not in sight. The question resolves itself into this: Is the Ambrosian Rite archaic Roman? Or is it a much Romanized form of the Gallican Rite? And this question is mixed with that of the provenance of the Gallican Rite itself. Some liturgiologists of a past generation, notably Dr. J. M. Neale and others of the Anglican School, referred the Hispano-Gallican and Celtic family of liturgies to an original imported into Provence from Ephesus by St. Irenæus, who had received it through St. Polycarp from St. John the Divine. The name Ephesine was applied to this liturgy, and it was sometimes called the Liturgy of St. John. The idea was not modern. Colman, at the Synod of Whitby in 664, attributed the Celtic rule of Easter to St. John, and in the curious little eighth-century treatise already mentioned (in Cott. Manuscript Nero A. II) one finds: "Johannes Evangelista primum cursus gallorum decantavit. Inde postea beatus policarpus discipulus sci iohannis. Inde postea hiereneus qui fuit eps Lugdunensis Gallei. Tertius ipse ipsum cursum decantauerunt [sic] in galleis." The author is not speaking of the Liturgy, but of the Divine Office, but that does not affect the question, and the theory, which had its obvious controversial value, was at one time very popular with Anglicans. Neale considered that the Ambrosian Rite was a Romanized form of this Hispano-Gallican, or Ephesine, Rite, He never brought much evidence for this view, being generally contented with stating it and giving a certain number of not very convincing comparisons with the Mozarabic Rite (Essays on Liturgiology, ed. 1867, 171-197). But Neale greatly exaggerated the Romanizing effected by St. Charles Borromeo, and his essay on the Ambrosian Liturgy is now somewhat out of date, though much of it is of great value as an analysis of the existing Rite. W. C. Bishop, in his article on the Ambrosian Breviary (Church Q., Oct., 1886), takes up the same line as Neale in claiming a Gallican origin for the Ambrosian Divine Office. But Duchesne in his "Origines du culte chrétien" has put forward a theory of origin which works out very clearly, though at present it is almost all founded on conjecture and a priori reasoning. He rejects entirely the Ephesine supposition, and considers that the Orientalisms which he recognizes in the Hispano-Gallican Rite are of much later origin than the period of St. Irenæus, and that it was from Milan as a centre that a rite, imported or modified from the East, perhaps by the Cappadocian Arian Bishop Auxentius (355-374), the predecessor of St. Ambrose, gradually spread to Gaul, Spain, and Britain. He lays great stress on the important position of Milan as a northern metropolis, and on the intercourse with the East by way of Aquileia and Illyria, as well as on the eastern nationality of many of the Bishops of Milan. In his analysis of the Gallican Mass, Duchesne assumes that the seventh-century Bobbia Sacramentary (Bibl. Nat., 13,246), though not actually Milanese, is to be counted as a guide to early Ambrosian usages, and makes use of it in the reconstruction of the primitive Rite before, according to his theory, it was so extensively Romanized as it appears in the earliest undeniably Ambrosian documents. He also appears to assume that the usages mentioned in the Letter of St. Innocent I to Decentius of Eugubium as differing from those of Rome were necessarily common to Milan and Gubbio. Paul Lejay has adopted this theory in his article in the "Revue d'histoire et littérature religeuses" (II, 173) and in Dom Cabrol's Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie" [s.v. Ambrosien (Rit)].

The other theory, of which Ceriani and Magistretti are the most distinguished exponents, maintains that the Ambrosian Rite has preserved the pre-Gelasian and pre-Gregorian form of the Roman Rite. I)r. Ceriani (Notitia Liturgiæ Ambrosianæ) supports his contention by many references to early writers and by comparisons of early forms of the Roman Ordinary with the Ambrosian. Both sides admit, of course, the self-evident fact that the Canon in the present Ambrosian Mass is a variety of the Roman Canon. Neither has explained satisfactorily how and when it got there. The borrowings from the Greek service books have been ably discussed by Cagin (Paléographie musicale, V), but there are Greek loans in the Roman books also, though, if Duchesne's theory of origin is correct, some of them may have travelled by way of the Milanese-Gallican Rite at the time of the Charlemagne revision. There are evident Gallicanisms in the Ambrosian Rite, but so there are in the present Roman, and the main outlines of the process by which they arrived in the latter are sufficiently certain, though the dates are not. The presence of a very definite Post-Sanctus of undoubted Hispano-Gallican form in the Ambrosian Mass of Easter Eve requires more explanation than it has received, and the whole question of provenance is further complicated by a theory, into which Ceriani does not enter, of a Roman origin of all the Latin liturgies, Gallican, Celtic, Mozarabic, and Ambrosian alike. There are indications in his liturgical note to the "Book of Cerne" and in "The Genius of the Roman Rite" that Mr. Edmund Bishop, who, as far as he has spoken at all, prefers the conclusions, though not so much the arguments, of Ceriani to either the arguments or conclusions of Duchesne, may eventually have something to say which will put the subject on a more solid basis.

Early manuscripts

The early Manuscripts of the Ambrosian Rite are generally found in the following forms:

(1) The "Sacramentary" contains the Orationes super Populum, Prophecies, Epistles, Gospels, Orationes super Sindonem, and super Oblata, the Prefaces and Post-Communions throughout the year, with the variable forms of the Communicantes and Hanc igitur, when they occur, and the solitary Post Sanctus of Easter Eve, besides the ceremonies of Holy Week, etc., and the Ordinary and Canon of the Mass. There are often also occasional offices usually found in a modern ritual, such as Baptism, the Visitation and Unction of the Sick, the Burial of the Dead, and various benedictions. It is essentially a priest's book, like the Euchologion of the Greeks.

(2) The "Psalter" contains the Psalms and Canticles. It is sometimes included with the "Manual".

(3) The "Manual" is nearly the complement of the "Sacramentary" and the "Psalter" as regards both the Mass and the Divine Office. It contains: For the Divine Office; the Lucernaria, Antiphons, Responsoria, Psallenda, Completoria, Capitula, Hymns, and other changeable parts, except the Lessons, which are found separately. For the Mass: the Ingressœ, Psalmellœ, Versus, Cantus, Antiphonœ ante and post Evangelium, Offertoria, Confractoria, and Transitoria. The "Manual" often also contains occasional services such as are now usually found in a Ritual.

(4) The "Antiphoner" is a Manual noted.

(5) The "Ritual" and

(6) "Pontifical" have contents similar to those of Roman books of the same name, though of course the early Manuscripts are less ample.

The following are some of the most noted Manuscripts of the rite.

(1) Sacramentaries and Missals:

(a) The "Biasca Sacramentary"; Bibl. Ambros., A. 24, bis inf., late ninth or early tenth century. Described by Delisle, "Anc. Sacr.", LXXI, edited by Ceriani in his "Monumenta Sacra et Profana", VIII, the Ordinary is analyzed and the Canon given in full in Ceriani's "Notitia Lit. Ambr".

(2) Antiphoner: "Antiphonarium Ambrosianum"; British Museum, Add. Manuscripts, 34,209; twelfth century; published by the Benedictines of Solesmes, with a complete facsimile and 200 pages of introduction by Dom Paul Cagin, in "Paléographie musicale", V,VI.

(d) "Asti Ritual"; Bibl, Mazarine, 525; tenth century. Described by Gastoué in "Rassegna Gregoriana", 1903. This, though from the old province of Milan, is not Ambrosian, but has bearings on the subject.

The liturgical year

The Liturgical Year of the Ambrosian Rite begins, as elsewhere in the West, with the First Sunday of Advent, but that Sunday, as in the Mozarabic Rite, is a fortnight earlier than in the Roman, so that there are six Sundays in Advent, and the key-day of the beginning of Advent is not St. Andrew's (30 November) but St. Martin's Day (11 November), which begins the Sanctorale. The rule of this key also differs. The Roman is: "Adventus Domini celebratur semper die Dominico, qui propinquior est festo S. Andreæ Apostoli", which gives a range from 27 November to 3 December. The Ambrosian is: "Adventus Domini inchoatur Dominica proxima post Festum S. Martini", that is to say, from 12 November to 18 November. If, as in 1906, St. Martin's Day falls on a Sunday, the Octave is the first Sunday of Advent; whereas in the Roman Rite if St. Andrew's Day falls on a Sunday, that day itself is Advent Sunday. The Feriœ of Advent continue until the Feriœ de Exceptato begin. These days, which some say must have been originally de Expectato, a quite unnecessary supposition, and on which the ordinary sequence of the Psalter is interrupted and certain proper psalms and antiphons are said, occur according to the following rule: "Officium in Adventu proprium quod de Exceptato dicitur semper celebratur in hac hebd. VI Adv. nisi dies Nativitatis Domini inciderit in fer. III, vel IV; tunc de Exceptato fit in hebd. V Adv. "So that there must be two and there may be seven of these days. Christmas Eve is not exactly counted as one of them, though, if it falls on a weekday, it has the proper psalms and antiphons of that Feria de Exceptato. If it falls on a Sunday, as in 1905, that is not one of the six Sundays of Advent, the last of which is the Sunday before, but the antiphons of the sixth Sunday are used. On the sixth Sunday of Advent the Annunciation (de Incarnatione D. N. J. C.) is celebrated, for, since no fixed festivals are kept during Lent or Easter Week, it cannot be properly celebrated on 25 March, though it is found there in the Calendar and has an Office in the Breviary. On this Sunday there are two Masses, una de Adventu et altera de Incarnatione. This day may be compared with the Mozarabic feast of the Annunciation on 18 December, which is the Roman Expectatio Partus B. M. V.Christmas Day has three Masses, in Nocte Sanctâ, in Aurorâ, and in Die, as in the Roman Rite, and the festivals which follow Christmas are included in the De Tempore, though there is a slight discrepancy between the Missal and Breviary, the former putting the lesser feasts of January which come before the Epiphany in the Sanctorale, and the latter including all days up to the Octave of the Epiphany in the Temporale, except 9 January (The Forty Martyrs). The day after the Epiphany is the Christophoria, the Return from Egypt. The Sundays after the Epiphany vary, of course, in number, six being, as in the Roman Rite, the maximum. The second is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Then follow Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and QuinquagesimaSundays, on which, though Gloria in Excelsis and Hallelujah are used, the vestments are violet. There is no Ash Wednesday, and Lent begins liturgically on the first Sunday, the fast beginning on the Monday. Until the time of St. Charles Borromeo the liturgicalLent, with its use of litanies on Sundays instead of Gloria in Excelsis and the disuse of Hallelujah, began on the Monday. The title of the Sunday, both then and now, was and is Dominica in capite Quadragesimœ. The other Sundays of Lent are styled De Samaritanâ, De Abraham, De Cœco, De Lazaro, and of course, in Ramis Palmarum (or Dominica Olivarum). The names of the second to the fifth Sundays are in allusion to the subject of the Gospel of the day, not, as in the Roman Rite, to the Introit. (Cf. nomenclature of Greek Rite.) Passiontide does not begin until Holy Week. The day before Palm Sunday is Sabbatum in Traditione Symboli. This, the Blessing of the Font, the extra Masses pro Baptizatis in Ecclesiâ Hyemali on Easter Eve and every day of Easter Week, and the name of the first Sunday after Easterin albis depositis show even more of a lingering memory of the old Easter Baptisms than the similar survivals in the Roman Rite. Holy Week is Hebdomada Anthentica. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Eve, and Easter Day are named as in the Roman Rite. The five Sundays after Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi follow, as in the Roman Rite, but the Triduum Litaniarum (Rogations) comes on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after, instead of before, Ascension Day. The Sundays after Pentecost continue eo nomine until the Decollation of St. John (29 August). There may be as many as fifteen of them. Then follow either four or five Sundayspost Decollationem S. Joannis Baptistœ, then three Sundays of October, the third of which is Dedicatio Ecclesiœ Majoris. The rest of the Sundays until Advent are post Dedicationem.

The Calendar of the Saints calls for little notice. There are many local saints, and several feasts which are given in the Roman Calendar in late February, March, and early April are given on other days, because of the rule against feasts in Lent. Only St. Joseph and the Annunciation come in the Lenten part of the Calendar, but the Masses of these are given on 12 December and the sixth Sunday of Advent respectively. The days are classified as follows:

Solemnitates Domini

First Class: the Annunciation, Christmas Day, Epiphany, Easter Day with its Monday and Tuesday, Ascension Day, Pentecost, with its Monday and Tuesday, Corpus Domini, the Dedication of the Cathedral or of the local church, Solemnitas Domini titularis propriœ Ecclesiœ. First class, secondary: the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Second class: the Visitation, Circumcision, Purification, Transfiguration, Invention of the Cross, Trinity Sunday. Second class, secondary: the Name of Jesus, the Holy Family, the Exaltation of the Cross. The Octaves of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter Day, Pentecost and Corpus Domini also count as Solemnitates Domini.

Alia Solemnia

Alia Solemnia are days noted as such in the Calendar, and the days of saints whose bodies or important relics are preserved in any particular church become Solemnia for that church.

Non-Solemnia Privilegiata

Non-Solemnia Simplicia

Feasts are also grouped into four classes: First class of Solemnitates Domini and Solemnia; second class of the same; greater and ordinary Solemnia; non-Solemnia, divided into privilegiata and simplicia. Solemnia have two vespers, non-Solemnia only one, the first. The privilegiata have certain propria and the simplicia only the communia. The general principle of occurrences is that common to the whole Western Church. If two festivals fall on the same day, the lesser is either transferred, merely commemorated, or omitted. But the Ambrosian Rite differs materially from the Roman in the rank given to Sunday, which is only superseded by a Solemnitas Domini, and not always then, for if the Name of Jesus or the Purification falls on Septuagesima, Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima Sunday, it is transferred, though the distribution and procession of candles takes place on the Sunday on which the Purification actually falls. If a Solemne Sanctorum or a privileged non-Solemne falls on a Sunday, a Solemnitas Domini, the Friday or Saturday of the fourth or fifth week of Advent, a Feria de Exceptato, within an Octave of a great Feast, a Feria Litaniarum, or a Feria of Lent, the whole office is of the Sunday, Solemnitas Domini, etc., and the Solemne or non-Solemne privilegiatum is transferred, in most cases to the next clear day, but in the case of Solemnia of the first or second class to the next Feria, quocumque festo etiam solemni impedita. A simple non-Solemne is never transferred, but it is omitted altogether if a Solemne of the first class falls on the same day, and in other cases of occurrences it is commemorated, though of course it supersedes an ordinary Feria. The concurrences of the first Vespers of one feast with the second of another are arranged on much the same principle, the chief peculiarity being that if a Solemne Sanctorum falls on a Monday its first Vespers is kept not on the Sunday, but on the preceding Saturday, except in Advent, when this rule applies only to Solemnia of the first and second class, and other Solemnia are only commemorated at Sunday Vespers. The liturgical colours of the Ambrosian Rite are very similar to those of the Roman, the most important differences being that (except when some greater day occurs) red is used on the Sundays and Feriœ after Pentecost and the Decollation of St. John until the Eve of the Dedication (third Sunday in October), on Corpus Christi and its Octave, and during Holy Week, except on Good Friday, as well as on the days on which it is used in the Roman Rite, and that (with similar exceptions) green is only used from the Octave of the Epiphany to the eve of Septuagesima, from Low Sunday to the Friday before Pentecost, after the Dedication to Advent, and on feasts of abbots.

The Divine Office

The distribution of the Psalter

The Ambrosian distribution of the Psalter is partly fortnightly and partly weekly. Psalms i to cviii are divided into ten decuriœ, one of which, in its numerical order, divided into three Nocturns, is recited at Matins on the Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays of each fortnight, each Nocturn being said under one antiphon. At the Matins of Sunday and Solemnitates Domini and on Feriœ in Easter and Whitsun weeks and the octave of Corpus Christi, there are no psalms, but three Old Testament canticles, Isaiah 26, De nocte vigilatâ; the Canticle of Anna (1 Samuel 2), Confirmatum est; and the Canticle of Jonas (ii), Clamavi ad Dominum, or of Habacuc (iii), Domine audivi. And on Saturdays the Canticle of Moses (Exod. xv), Cantemus Domino, and half of Psalm cxviii take the place of Decuriœ at the three Nocturns. At Vespers, Psalms cix to cxlvii, except cxvii, cxviii, and cxxxiii, which are used elsewhere, and cxlii, which is only used in the Office of the Dead and as Psalmus Directus at Lauds on Fridays, are divided between the whole seven days of each week in their numerical sequence, and in the same manner as in the Roman Rite. Psalm cxviii, besides being used on Saturdays, is distributed among the four lesser Hours exactly as in the Roman Rite; Psalm l is said at Lauds every day except Sunday, when the Benedicite, and Saturday, when Psalm cxvii, takes its place, and with the Preces (when these are used) at Prime and Terce throughout the year and at None during Lent, while at the Preces of Sext Psalm liii is said, and at those of None Psalm lxxxv, except during Lent. Psalm liii precedes Beati immaculati at Prime, and Psalms iv, xxx, 1-6, xc and cxxxiii are said daily, as in the Roman Rite, at Compline. At Lauds a single Psalm, known as Psalmus Directus, differing with the day of the week, is also said.

During LentPsalm 90 is said as Psalmus Directus at Vespers, except on Sundays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and the "Four Verses of a Psalm" at Lauds on Saturdays are alternately from the twelfth and first parts of Psalm 98, and on the six Sundays the "Four Verses" are from 69, 62, 101, 62, 62, 58. During Lent also the Vesper "Four Verses" are different for every day, except that there are none on Friday, and those on the first four Saturdays are from Psalm 91. In Holy Week the Psalms at the Nocturns and at Vespers are all proper, and there are also proper Psalms during the period from the first Feria de Exceptato until the Circumcision; and on the Annunciation (sixth Sunday of Advent), Epiphany, Christophoria, Name of Jesus, Ascension, Corpus Christi, the Dedication and many Solemnia Sanctorum, and on many other saints' days the Decuriœ are superseded by Psalms of the Common of Saints.

Other details of the Divine Office

Antiphonœ, similar in construction to those in the Roman Rite are: in Psalmis et canticis, used as in the Roman Rite; in Choro, said after the Lucernarium on Sundays, at the second Vespers of Solemnia, or on other saints' days, at first Vespers, but not on Feriœ, except Saturdays in Advent; ad Crucem, said on Solemnitates Domini, on Sundays, except in Lent, and on Solemnia. Responsoria are constructed as in the Roman Rite, and are: Post hymnum, said after the hymn at Matins; Inter lectiones at Matins; cum Infantibus or cum Pueris after the hymn at the first Vespers of Solemnia; in Choro, said at Vespers on Sundays, at the second Vespers of Solemnia, and at the first of Non-Solemnia, after the hymn; in Baptisterio, at Lauds and Vespers of some Solemnitates after the first Psallenda, on Feriœ after the twelve Kyries, at Vespers after the prayer which follows Magnificat; Diaconalia or Quadragesimalia, on Wednesdays in Lent and on Good Friday; ad Cornu Altaris, at Lauds before the Psalmus Directus on Christmas Day, the Epiphany, and Easter Eve; Gradualia, said after the hymn at Lauds on Feriœ in Lent. Lucernaria are Responsoria which begin Vespers. Psallendœ are single verses, often from the Psalms, said after the twelve Kyries and the second prayer at Lauds, and after the prayers at Vespers. They are variable according to the day, and are followed by either one or two fixed Complenda or Completoria, which are also single verses. Psalmi Directi are said at Lauds and sometimes at Vespers. They are sung together by both choirs, not antiphonally. Psalmi Quatuor Versus is the name given to four verses of a psalm said at Vespers and Lauds on weekdays, after one of the Collects. Among the Hymns, besides those by St. Ambrose, or commonly attributed to him, many are included by other authors, such as Prudentius, Venantius Fortunatus, St. Gregory, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many whose authorship is unknown. A considerable number of well-known hymns (e.g. "Ave Mark Stella", "A Solis Ortus Cardine", "Jesu Redemptor Omnium," "Iste Confessor") are not in the Ambrosian Hymnal, but there are many there which are not in the Roman, and those that are common to both generally appear as they were before the revisions of Urban VIII, though some have variants of their own. Capitula are short lessons of Scripture used as in the Roman Rite. At the Lesser Hours and ComplineCapitula taken from the Epistles are called Epistolellœ.

The Mass

The Ambrosian Mass in its present form is best shown by an analysis pointing out the differences from the Roman. As a great part of it agrees word for word with the Roman, it will only be necessary to indicate the agreements, without giving the passages in full. There are a certain number of ceremonial differences, the most noticeable of which are:

(1) When the deacon and sub-deacon are not occupied, they take up positions at the north and south ends of the altar facing each other.

(2) The Prophecy, Epistle, and Gospel are said, in MilanCathedral, from the great ambon on the north side of the choir, and the procession thereto is accompanied with some state.

(3) The offering of bread and wine by the men and women of the Scuola di S. Ambrogio.

In the rubrics of the Missal there are certain survivals of ancient usage which could only have applied to the city of Milan itself, and may be compared with the "stations" affixed to certain Masses in the Roman Missal of today. The Ambrosian Rite supposes the existence of two cathedrals, the Basilica Major or Ecclesia Æstiva, and the Basilica Minor or Ecclesia Hiemalis. Lejay, following Giulini, calls the Ecclesia Major (St. Mary's) the winter church, and St. Thecla the summer church (Cabrol, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne, col. 1382 sqq.), but Ecclesia Hiematis and Ecclesia Major in the "Bergamo Missal", and Ecclesia Hiemalis and Ad Sanctam Mariam, in all missals, are evidently contrasted with one another. Also the will of Berengarius I, founding St. Rafaele (quoted by Giulini, I, 416) speaks of the latter being near the summer church, which it is, if the summer church is St. Mary's. There is also assumed to be a detached baptistery and a Chapel of the Cross, though mentions of these are found chiefly in the Breviary, and in earlier times the church of St. Laurence was the starting point of the Palm Sunday ceremonies. The greater, or summer, church, under the patronage of Our Lady, is now the Cathedral; the lesser, or winter, church, which stood at the opposite end of the Piazza del Duomo, and was destroyed in 1543, was under the patronage of St. Thecla. As late as the time of Beroldus (twelfth century) the changes from one to the other were made at Easter and at the Dedication of the Great Church (third Sunday in October), and even now the rubric continues to order two Masses on certain great days, one in each church, and on Easter Eve and through Easter week one Mass is ordered daily pro baptizatis in Ecclesia Hiemali, and another, according to the Bergamo book, in Ecclesia Majori. The modern books say, in omni ecclesiâ. There were two baptisteries, both near the greater church.

Oramus te, Domine etc., as in the Roman Rite. The "Ingressa", which answers to the Roman Introit. Except in the Mass for the Departed, when, even in the 1475 Missal, it is exactly the Roman Introit, it consists of a single passage, generally of Scripture, without Psalm, "Gloria Patri", or repetition.

V. Dominus vobiscum etc.

Gloria in Excelsis — On the Sundays in Lent two litanies are said alternately instead. These litanies strongly resemble the Great Synapte of the Greek Rite and, like that, are said by the deacon. One has the response "Domine Miserere", and the other "Kyrie eleison". A very similar Litany in the Stowe Missal (f 16, b) is called "Deprecatio Sancti Martini pro populo".

Kyrie eleison (thrice).

V. Dominus vobiscum etc.

Oratio super Populum, "vel plures Orationes". The Collect or Collects for the day.

V. Dominus vobiscum etc.

The Prophetical Lesson, when there is one, which is generally on Sundays, "Solemnitates Domini" and "Solemnia", preceded by a benediction; "Prophetica (or Apostolica) Lectio sit nobis salutis eruditio". According to the letters of Paul and Gebehard of Ratisbon, "Gesta Sanctorum" sometimes took the place of the Old Testament Lesson. Passages from the Act and the Apocalypse are still used.

Hallelujah. Versus. Hallelujah. On "solemnitates Domini" the first Hallelujah is doubled. In Lent, on the Litany days, the "Feriæde Exceptato" and Vigils, the Cantus, answering to the Roman Tractus, takes the place of the Hallelujahs and Versus. On some "Solemnitates Domini" there is an "Antiphona ante Evangelium" also. There are no Sequences in the Ambrosian Rite. The Psalmellus and Versus of the Epistle and the Versus between Hallelujahs of the Gospel together make up exactly the form of a Roman Gradual, and they often agree with those of the Roman Missal.

The Gospel, preceded by "Munda cor meum", etc., as in the Roman Rite, with the addition of "In nomine Patris, etc." at the end of "Dominus sit in corde meo", before, instead of after which the Gospel is given out. The Gospel is followed by "Laus tibi Christe", and "Per evangelica dicta deleantur nostra delicta".

V. Dominus vobiscum, etc.

Kyrie eleison (thrice).

Antiphona post Evangelium.

Deacon: "Pacem habete". R. "Ad te Domine" (cf. the response Soi Kyrie in the Little Synapte and elsewhere in the Constantinopolitan Rite. In early Manuscripts the form here is: "Pacem habete. V. Corrigite vos ad orationem". R. "Ad te Domine". Lejay considers that the kiss of peace once came at this point.

After the prayer, the Priest receives the paten with the Host and offers it, saying, "Suscipe, clementissime Pater hunc Panem sanctum ut fiat Unigeniti tui Corpus, in nomine Patris, etc." Laying the Host on the corporal he pours into the chalice wine, saying: "De latere Christi exivit sanguis", and water, saying: "Et aqua pariter, in nomine, &c." Then he offers the chalice, saying: "Suscipe clementissime Pater, hunc Calicem, vinum aqua mistum ut fiat Unigeniti tui Sanguis, in nomine, etc." At this point, in MilanCathedral, the Chapter clergy all file past the north corner of the altar, each kissing the corner as he passes. Then follow two prayers of offering, addressed respectively to the Father and to the Trinity, agreeing in meaning with the "Suscipe Sancte Pater" and "Suscipe Sancta Trinitas" of the Roman Rite, but differing altogether in language. On Sundays and feasts of Our Lord and their vigils, there is a third prayer, nearly agreeing in wording with "Suscipe, Sancta Trinitas". Then extending his hands over the oblation, he says: "Et suscipe Sancta Trinitas hanc oblationem pro emundatione mea; ut mundes et purges me ab universis peccatorum maculis, quatenus tibi digne ministrare merear, Deus et clementissime Domine".

[In the eleventh-century Manuscript in the Chapter Library at Milan (No. 1. d in the list of Sacramentaries given above), the "Dominus vobiscum" after the Creed is followed by a prayer: "Adesto Domine supplicationibus nostris et his muneribus præsentiam tuæ majestatis intersere ut quod nostro servitio geritur te potius operante firmetur per omnia, etc.", and there are no other Offertoryprayers.] At a solemn Mass the blessing of the Incense, and censing of the altar follow. The words are exactly those of the Roman Rite until the delivery of the thurible to the deacon, when instead of "Ascendat in nobis" the priest says: "Ecce odor Sanctorum Dei: tanquam odor agri pleni, quem Deus benedixit".

Then follows the "Offertorium". In the cathedral of Milan there is an interesting ceremony at the Offertory, probably a survival of the early practice of offerings "in kind" by the congregation. Ten old men (known as the Vecchioni) and ten old women, who are supported by the Chapter, wear a special costume and belong to what is called the "Scuola di S. Ambrogio", bring offerings of bread and wine to the choir steps and deliver them to the clergy. There is a detailed account of this ceremony in Beroldus (Ed. Magistretti, 1894, 52). The institution is mentioned in a charter of Bishop Anspert in the ninth century. Wickham Legg (Ecclesiological Essays, 53) says that these offerings are not now used at the Mass then being said, but at some later one. He gives photographs of the old men and women and a full description of the ceremony.

The Creed, preceded by "Dominus vobiscum", etc. It is here entitled "Symbolum Constantinopolitanum", and differs not at all from that in the Roman Mass.

V. Dominus vobiscum, etc.

Oratio super oblata.

The Preface. The "Sursum corda" etc. is exactly as in the Roman Rite, though the plain chant is altogether different. The Preface itself has the word "quia" after "vere", but otherwise begins as in the Roman Rite, as far as "Æterne Deus". After that comes a marked difference, for instead of only ten variations, there are proper Prefaces for all days that have proper offices, as well as commons of all classes, and in the final clauses, which vary, as in the Roman, according to the ending of the inserted Proper, there are verbal differences.

"Communicantes" and "Hanc igitur" are variable on certain days, as in the Roman Rite, but the list of saints differs, Linus and Cletus being omitted and Hippolytus, Vincent, Apollinaris, Vitalis, Nazarius and Celsus, Protasius and Gervasius, Victor, Nabor, Felix, and Calimerius being added. In the earlier editions there were the following additional names: Maternus, Eustorgius, Dionysius, Ambrose, Simplitian, Martin, Eusebius, Hilary, Julius, and Benedict.

"Quam oblationem quam pietati tuæ offerimus tu Deus in omnibus quæsumus, etc.", the rest as in the Roman Canon. At this point the Priest washes his hand, "nihil dicens".

The "Pax". The priest says: "Pax et communicatio D. N. J. C. sit semper vobiscum. R. Et cum spiritu tuo". The deacon: "Offerte vobis pacem. R. Deo gratias". The prayer, "Domine Jesu Christe qui dixisti, etc.", which differs from the Roman in reading "pacificare, custodire et regere digneris propitius". Then the "Pax" is given: "V. Pax tecum. R. Et cum spiritu tuo," as in the Roman Rite. In Masses for the Dead the "Offerte vobis pacem", the prayer, and the giving of the "Pax" are omitted, and the "Agnus Dei", differing from the Roman form "pro defunctis" only in adding "et locum indulgentiæ cum Sanctis tuis in gloria" at the end, is said. The "Agnus Dei" does not occur in other Masses.

The eleventh-century Manuscript (No. 1-d in list above), quoted in the Solesmes edition of the Bergamo book, does not contain any more at the "Pax" and "Communion" than "Pax et Communicatio, etc." "Offerte vobis pacem." "Oratio post communionem." "Dominus vobiscum, etc." "Quad ore sumpsimus, etc."

The occasional services

Of the services in the Ritual and Pontifical there is not much to say. The ceremonies of Baptism differ in their order from those of the Roman Rite. The Ambrosian order is: renunciation; ephphatha; sufflation; unction; exorcism and second sufflation; signing with the Cross; delivery of the salt; introduction into the church; Creed and Lord's Prayer; declaration of faith; Baptism, for which the rubric is: Ter occiput mergit in aqua in crucis formam (and, as Legg points out, the Ambrosians boast that their baptism is always by immersion); litany; anointing with chrism; delivery of white robe and candle; dismissal. A great part of the wording is exactly the same as the Roman. The order of the Unction of the Sick shows the progress of Roman influence in modern times. The service at present used differs very little except at one point from that given by Magistretti (Mon. Vet., II, 79, 94, 147) from early Manuscripts, and from the form in the undated printed Ritual of the late fifteenth century, but the difference at that point is no less than the introduction of the Roman manner and words of anointing. The old Ambrosian Rite was to anoint the sick person on the breast, the hands, and the feet, with the words: "Ungo te oleo sanctificato, more militis unctus et preparatus ad luctam aerias possis catervas. Operare creatura olei, in nomine+Dei Patris omnipotentis+et Filii+et Spiritus Sancti, ut non lateat spiritus immundus nec in membris nec in medullis nec in ulla compagine membrorum hujus hominis [vel mulieris] sed operetur in eo virtus Christi Filii Altissimi qui cum æterno Patri. . . . Amen." Then, "Quidquid peccasti per cogitationem cordis [per operationem manuum vel per ingressum pedum] parcat tibi Deus. Amen." The fifteenth-century printed Ritual varies the first anointing. Instead of "Quidquid peccasti", it reads, "Per istam unctionem et cristi sacratissimam passionem si quid peccasti, etc.", the other two being as in the older books. The Ungo te, etc., is repeated with each. A somewhat similar form, but shorter, with the anointing of the five senses and reading Ungimus for Ungo, is given in Harl. Manuscript 2990, an early fifteenth-century North Italian fragment, and in the Venetian printed pre-Tridontine Rituals, a form very like the last (but reading Ungo) with the same anointings as in the Roman Rite, is given as the rite of the Patriarchate of Venice. This form, or something very like it, with the seven anointings is found in the Asti Ritual described by Gastoué. In the modern Ambrosian Ritual the Roman seven anointings and the form, Per istam unctionem, etc., are taken over bodily and the Ungo te has disappeared. The differences in the Order of Matrimony are very slight, and the other contents of the Ritual call for no special remark. In the ninth-century Pontifical published by Magistretti the consecration of a church includes the solemn entry, the writing of the ABCturium, with the cambutta (that Gaelic word, cam bata, crooked staff, which is commonly used in Gallican books), the blessing and mixture of salt, water, ashes, and wine, the sprinkling and anointing of the church and the altar, the blessing of various utensils, and at the end the deposition of the relics. The order given by Mercati from an eleventh-century Manuscript at Lucca differs from the ninth-century form in that there is a circumambulation and sprinkling, with the signing of the cross on the door, the writing of an alphabet per parietem and the making of three crosses on each wall with chrism, before the entry, and there is no deposition of relics. There are also considerable differences of wording. The ordinations in the ninth-century Manuscript are of the same mixed Roman and Gallican type, but are less developed than those of the modern Roman Pontifical.

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